As the system of a five-day work week was introduced to Taiwan in recent years, people in Taiwan pay more and more attentions to leisure activities in holidays and start going out for outdoor activities such as fishing, barbeque or hiking. For outdoor activities, various types of knives available in the market are usually used for cutting food, fishing line or firewood or opening cans. In particular, there is a type of folding knives, not just being popular only, but also providing an easy carry, and thus the folding knives become a favorable tool of outdoor enthusiasts. A folding knife for outdoor activities is used as an example for illustrating the invention as follows:
With reference to FIG. 1 for a conventional folding knife 10, the conventional folding knife 10 comprises a handle 11 and a blade 12, wherein the handle 11 is formed by combining a first handle portion 111, a metal plate 112 and a second handle portion 113 together, and a position proximate to an end of the blade 12 is pivotally installed between the first handle portion 111 and the metal plate 112, such that the other end of the blade 12 can be turned outwardly from a side of the handle 11 to the outside of the handle 11 or turned inwardly and accommodated into the handle 11. The metal plate 112 includes a stop plate 114, and if the blade 12 of the folding knife 10 is accommodated in the handle 11, the stop plate 114 will movably abut against a side of the blade 12. After the blade 12 is turned outwardly and completely from the handle 11, an end of the stop plate 114 will be movably tilted towards the first handle portion 111 and abutted against an end of the blade 12, such that when a user is using the conventional folding knife 10, the stop plate 114 can abut and support the blade 12 to prevent the blade 12 from being turned and folded into the handle 11 suddenly. Therefore, users can use the conventional folding knife 10 at ease.
Although the aforementioned conventional folding knife 10 is simple structured and used extensively by outdoor enthusiasts, its application still has substantial drawbacks. Since the conventional folding knife 10 relies on the stop plate 114 to abut and support the blade 12, the stop plate 114 of the conventional folding knife 10 may be deformed or shifted due to an excessive force applied by the user, and the blade 12 cannot be abutted by the stop plate 114 anymore. As a result, the blade 12 will lose its abutting force suddenly when the folding knife is unfolded completely, and the blade 12 will be turned with a large force towards the handle 11, and the user's finger or palm may be clamped or cut by the blade 12, or the user's safety may be jeopardized. Obviously, the structural strength of the conventional folding knife 10 is not strong enough, and the design of the conventional folding knife 10 still has a safety concern.
From the description above, the conventional folding knife has a low structural strength and simply relies on the stop plate to abut and support the blade, so that the conventional folding knife may lose its abutting force suddenly in its use, and the blade may be turned suddenly to cut the user due to the deformation or displacement of the stop plate. Therefore, it is an important subject for related designers and manufacturers to design and manufacture a safety folding knife with a blade that can be turned outwardly to the outside of the handle, such that when the elastic stop plate abuts against an end of the blade, a resisting block can be released from the containing slot on the internal side of the handle, and driven by the elastic force of an elastic element to turn to a position capable of abutting against an internal side of the handle and a side of the elastic stop plate, such that the elastic stop plate can be blocked by the resisting block to maintain a status of abutting against an end of the blade and overcome the problem of folding the blade back into the handle easily or cutting the user.